1.5 Professional Communication
Learning Objectives
- Define professional communication.
- Explain the principles of professional communication.
- Integrate principles of professional communication by composing an email to your professor.
Professional Communication
Professional communication is an essential part of working in health studies. You are entering a “profession,” which means there are certain expectations regarding your professional conduct and, specifically, how you communicate.
Professional communication involves a level of formality and is an essential component of your post-secondary education. It differs from the informal communication you may engage in with friends and family. It also applies to your verbal and written communications, including email.
Professional communication principles include being ethical, truthful, accurate, clear, concise, and comprehensive. For example, you should say or write something clearly and concisely while including all relevant information. You should also have a professional tone conveyed through appropriate greetings, complete sentences, and grammar. To be professional, you need to know your audience; the content and form of your message should be tailored to your audience.
Here are some tips to follow in terms of professional communication:
- Introduce yourself by name, role, and institution, such as: “I am Abbie, a Year One health studies student from MacEwan University.”
- Address the person you are speaking to formally. Also, do not assume the gender of the person you speak to. For example, you should avoid using terms such as “miss,” “ma’am,” “sir,” or “mister,” until you know how the recipient identifies and wants to be addressed. If uncertain, introduce yourself fully and ask how the recipient wants to be addressed.
- State your personal pronouns if applicable and invite others to share their personal pronouns.
- Clearly articulate your message (what you are trying to say).
- Speak in complete sentences.
- Be honest.
- Be polite. Your communication is a reflection of YOU and your professionalism.
Because a lot of communication occurs electronically, it is essential to consider how to construct an email. Here are some tips:
- Use a professional email address. At most universities, your email with a professor should originate from your university email (not your Gmail or other accounts).
- Begin with a clear description in the subject line. For example, students should include the course code in the subjective line and a brief description identifying the reason for the email (e.g., “HLST 154 Section BN02: question regarding Week 3 quiz”).
- Use a professional email greeting and salutation to address your professor or the salutation preferred by the professor.
- Appropriate: “Dear Professor Smith” or “Hello, Dr. Hall.”
- Inappropriate: “Hey teacher” or “Hey Lindsey.”
- Introduce yourself so that the email recipient knows who you are. Remember, professors teach several courses and course sections. Thus, you might say, “I am Minta Lee. I am a student in your Wednesday section of HLST 154.”
- Refer to any attachments in the email text.
- Avoid point form, slang, abbreviations, and emoticons.
- Include a signature block at the end of your email identifying your full name, role, institution, and contact information.
- Proofread your email for accuracy, grammar, and spelling.
- Avoid humour and excessive use of exclamation points and all caps. These can easily be misinterpreted.
Addressing and Referring to Your Instructor
Students are often uncertain about how to address their instructors or professors. It is okay to ask them how they would like to be addressed. Until you know, you should refer to them as “Professor X” (insert their surname) or “Dr. X” (insert their surname).
Although some instructors and professors may invite you to use their first name, it is part of professional communication etiquette to use “Professor X” or “Dr. X” (including both their first and last name) when referring to them with others. In addition to ensuring professional communication, this helps to clarify if your instructors share a first or last name with another instructor.
Example: Dr. Huang is your course instructor, and they have encouraged you to contact another professor to discuss potential research opportunities. Although Dr. Huang has permitted you to call her Lisa in the classroom, you should always refer to them as Dr. Lisa Huang in communication with others. Thus, when initiating communication with the instructor Dr. Huang referred you to, you may consider a beginning such as: “Dear Dr. Hameed. I am a student in the undergraduate Year One health studies communication course with Dr. Lisa Huang. Dr. Huang has encouraged me to reach out to you about potential research opportunities because of my interest in emotional intelligence in health care.”
Key Takeaways
- Professional communication requires formality when speaking, writing, and composing emails.
- Professional communication principles include being ethical, truthful, accurate, clear, concise, and comprehensive.
Exercises
- Compose an email to your professor using this section’s professional communication principles and tips.
Activity: Check your Understanding
Attribution Statement
Content adapted, with editorial changes, from:
Lapum, J., St.-Amant, O., Hughes, M., & Garmaise-Yee, J. (Eds.)(2020). Introduction to communication in nursing. Toronto Metropolitan University Pressbooks. https://pressbooks.library.ryerson.ca/communicationnursing/
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.
